Equilibrium, And Then Some
by incandescience
Summary: Five ways that Luke and Mara never met. A series of one-shots, organized by gemstones.
1. Emerald

Disclaimer: Characters, etc, belong to GL. Plot bunnies are mine.

Five ways in which Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade never met, most extremely AU. Organized by gemstone colors, and the only continuity between the one-shots is the two meeting. :).

_**1. Emerald**_

Mara swore furiously, as she followed the signal of the homing beacon to a tiny swamp of a planet that didn't even exist on the navigation maps. Damn the Emperor for making her spy on Vader's rather suspicious activities – culminating in the discovery of Vader's son. She cursed again as the Z-95 Headhunter's control panel started going haywire during the descent through the atmosphere. She ejected herself from the craft right before it slammed into the surface of the planet, and watched, furious, as it sunk almost immediately into the swamp it landed in.

Clapping brought her eyes to the opposite side of the shore, where a wizened, tiny green creature stood, leaning on a gnarled stick. Vader's son stood behind the creature. "Force she has, yes, yes, fixable, but tainted somewhat." It mused, and hobbled over towards her.

She whipped out her blaster, holding it with a steady aim on the tiny green thing. "Fire will you, child?" Mara fired. The shot impacted onto something into the air, and vanished. She tried again. The same thing happened. In disgust, she aimed at Vader's son, and as she was about to pull the trigger, the creature snapped, "Enough." In a flurry, all of her weapons detached themselves from her and flew into its possession, even the hidden vibroblade strapped to her ankle, and the purple lightsaber stashed within her flightsuit.

"Linked to Sidious, are you not? On Dagobah, help you nor hinder you, he cannot. Good training companion you will be. What mission sent you on, he did?"

With a grudging respect for the little creature and its efficiency, Mara muttered, "Tracking Vader's son."

The son frowned at her. "Luke."

"What?"

"My name's Luke."


	2. Topaz

Disclaimer: Characters, etc, belong to GL. Plot's mine, mine, all mine.

Glad you all liked Emerald. :) It's set in the timeline of "A World Without Strangers," which will be updated, sometime. The next is post-ESB.

_**2. ****Topaz** _

Tatooine was a harsh place with even harsher inhabitants. Mara, waiting restlessly to perform for her dancer's gig at Jabba's Palace, sat in a cantina, idly tapping her fingers on the bar top . A blonde man, dressed in the normal dusty garb, slipped in, followed by a whistling astromech droid. He sat down next to her, ordering a drink.

Mara smiled. He was making this even easier than she thought it would be.

"Need help?" She inquired, after he downed whatever he ordered.

He groaned. "Is there any way to get to Jabba's Palace?"

"As a matter of fact, I'm about to go there now to perform as a dancer."

His face lit up. "Seriously?"

She opened her cloak, revealing her dancer's costume, and watched as his eyes widened, and his face went completely red.

"Mrrgh." He muttered.

She raised an eyebrow. "Cover up, please?" He whimpered.

Snorting, she wrapped her cloak closely about her, inwardly pleased a bit by his reaction to her body, and his farmboy mannerisms. "My speeder's outside. Come on."

She led him out to the street. A group of stormtroopers was passing by, and he tensed up, grabbing her and darting into a nearby alleyway. _Not suspicious at all, honestly_. She rolled her eyes, and took matters into her own hands.

She pushed him up against the wall, and when her lips met his, something clicked in the world, and it just felt so_ right_. She sighed into his arms, and tension fled from his body. The stormtroopers ignored them and kept walking - why look closely at the normal activities of a couple, set against the shadows of the sunlight? "Do you usually go around kissing men you don't even know the names of?" He asked, amused, once her lips were removed from his, and when both of their bodies were screaming at the absence of each other's touch.

Tension snapped back into existence, but now, it was in her body, and with another click of a different type, cold metal was pressed against his head, her hand attached to it. _A blaster_. He thought, numbly. _Well, someone had to catch up with me._His other hand was pinned down by hers in a crushing grip.

"Only if they have something that the Emperor wants, and he wants you dead. I do think I'm a bit more efficient than the stormtroopers."

"Well then, take good care of R2, will you?"

"What?"

"My astromech."

She slapped him. "Don't you understand that you're about to die?!" She raged at him. "I'm about to shoot you right now, and all you worry about is your damn droid?!" Why couldn't he just _react_ like the damn criminal he was supposed to be, instead of this calm thing that kept pulling at her nonexistent heartstrings with pity?

"If it's what you need to do, then, do it. You're a bounty hunter, aren't you?" He said, without a trace of irony.

"I'm the Emperor's Hand, not some idiot bounty hunter!" She screamed at him. "Aren't you afraid at all?"

He replied calmly, "Yes. But what can I do? If I ran, you'd catch me within parsecs."

"DO SOMETHING!" She yelled, furious, waving her hands around. "Most people don't just stand and accept their death!"

He shrugged. "I'm not most people. Allow me one more thing?" He whispered, and without waiting for a reaction, he kissed her gently, an action that quickly turned forceful and passionate as she responded in kind. They stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity, desperation and desire warring within them.

When they finally broke apart, he whispered, with only a small hint of fear and resignation, "I'm ready now."

The blaster was still set on 'kill.', and she raised it to his heart. Her hand was unsteady, for the first time in her life, but somehow, she still squeezed. He smiled sadly as his conscious fled his body, and collapsed against her. Mara sank down to the ground, cradling his body, and stared at his face, serene and beautiful, even without life.

Only weeks later would she wonder at the soul-wrenching pain that had been consistently tearing her heart every few hours, and decided that she ought to go to the palace physician for a checkup and some meds. She ignored the little voice in her mind whispering that it was about the innocent, calm look that had been spread across her target's face, and about the feelings that he had stirred within her. It had only been five minutes to kill him, after all. No one could affect her that much in such a short time, even if she had kept his lightsaber, the only token she had ever taken from a target.

She ignored the whispers of her mind like she usually did, and focused on more pressing matters. As she walked toward the Palace wing housing the physician, she hoped that Lord Vader wouldn't also be there, as for the past few weeks, he had been prone to such bouts of rage that his suit needed constant maintenance, and if she ran into him in one of those moods – Mara shuddered. She didn't even know if her master could survive these episodes of Lord Vader's temper, as the ones of these past weeks eclipsed even all of his other legendary fits of anger.

The astromech droid whistled worriedly at her, trailing after her as she stalked down the palace halls.


	3. Ruby

Onwards onto the next one...! Set in a kind of AU Old Republic situation. Review please :)

Disclaimer: the normal, GL owns all, etc, etc.

**3. _Ruby_**

It was almost ten years after the averting of the Palpatine Crisis – the next day would be exactly a decade. Two figures walked slowly up the steps of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, a young mother with a reluctant boy behind her. The slim, brown-haired figure pushed the boy through the doors, nodding at the doorwardens. "Come on, Luke. I thought you were excited about becoming a Padawan." Padmé Amidala Skywalker coaxed her son, as he trailed along behind her, dragging his feet on the carpet. "It can't be that bad, and besides, you've already met all the Masters before."

"Yes it is! Master Greenie still calls me stick-stealer and hits my knees with that stick! And it's been seven years! And I was only borrowing it to look at it, " Luke whined. "Master Mister Obi-Wan makes sure to sit three feet away from me so I can't pull his beard, and tells Dad he's so grateful that he never had twins...Master-Masteress-Master Gallia says that -"

"Padmé!" A voice called out from behind her, cutting off Luke's diatribe. A blonde woman emerged from one of the doorways of the hall, followed by her daughter, who bore startling red hair and green eyes.

"Siri! And your daughter Mara?" Padmé exclaimed happily.

The Jedi smiled, nodding. She was another one who had benefited from the relaxing of the Council's policies, and it made Padmé glad to see that Obi-Wan had also finally managed to have his own happiness in romance.

Luke's eyes were wide. "She's got red hair! I've never seen red hair before!" He scrambled forward, latching onto the red hair and the owner of said red hair with a surprisingly strong grip.

"What's your name?" He asked, bouncing up and down.

Poor Luke didn't seem to notice the annoyance that was radiating off Mara in waves. When he accidentally stomped on her toe a second later in his exuberance, the little seven-year-old girl finally had enough.

With a rather powerful shove and a kick, Luke went sprawling backwards. "I don't talk with little boys. They have cooties," she announced proudly. Red hair flared as the owner stalked off.

"Momma, she's even prettier than you. " Luke breathed, still stunned and on the floor.

Padmé and Siri traded amused looks.


End file.
